Providing information, education, and training to build knowledge, develop skills, and change attitudes that will lead to increased independence, productivity, self determination, integration and inclusion (IPSII) for people with developmental disabilities and their families.

No Charges For Brother Who Watched 26 Hours As Sister Died
By
Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 19, 2005

KENT,
ENGLAND--A man who watched his sister's 26-hour suicide attempt was not charged
with a crime, British media reported Wednesday.

Graham Lawson, 35, sat by while his 48-year-old sister, Sue Lawson, took
an overdose of medication and then tried -- eight times -- to suffocate herself
with plastic bags.

"She got to the point every time where she had to take a breath and
pulled the bag off," he said.

He explained that her suicide began at 3:00 one afternoon and that she
finally died at about 5.30 the following afternoon.

Ms. Lawson, a former bank manager, had been diagnosed with multiple
sclerosis 14 years earlier. Her brother said she used a wheelchair and was
upset that she could not take care of herself.

After she finally succeeded in killing herself, Mr. Lawson carried his
sister's body to her bedroom and arranged her body "so that she looked nice" on
her bed.

Police arrested and jailed Mr. Lawson for 24 hours because he failed to
call the 999 emergency number for an ambulance. He later said he did not know
that he could have faced up to 14 years in prison for assisting in his sister's
suicide.

The date of Ms. Lawson's death was not given in several accounts. It was
reported, however, that the prosecutor announced last April, five months after
Ms. Lawson's death, that no charges would be filed against her brother.

Mr. Lawson, identified initially in reports simply as "David", had
decided to keep the case quiet until this week, following the news that Brian
Blackburn would not serve any prison time for killing his wife.

Mr. Blackburn, 62, admitted on October 15 to slicing the wrists of
himself and 62-year-old Margaret Blackburn as part of a suicide pact. While his
wife bled to death, Mr. Blackburn's blood coagulated and he survived.

Even though Britain's Suicide Act 1961 makes it a crime to help another
commit suicide, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, Blackburn received a
two-year sentence which the judge then suspended.

Deborah Annetts, head of Britain's Voluntary Euthanasia Society used the
opportunity to portray Mr. Lawson and Mr. Blackburn as victims of what she
called a "cruel law".

"David's arrest shows how vulnerable the law makes us," she told the
Press Association.

Elspeth Chowdharay-Best of the anti-euthanasia group, Alert, told the
Guardian that Mr. Lawson should have been prosecuted for the crime.

"There is a new attitude emerging in society that if there is something
wrong with someone they should be got rid of as soon as possible," she said.
"Instead, they should be offered support."

"I think this man ought to face prosecution but there also needs to be
much better information about disease so that people can be helped and don't
despair."

Several disability rights groups have opposed making such "mercy
killings" legal. They argue that doing so would open the door to people with
some disabilities being legally put to death or pressured to kill themselves
because they are considered a "burden" on society or to have "lives not worth
living". In places that have legalized assisted suicide, many of those who have
been helped to kill themselves have not been in the final stages of terminal
illness, despite the safeguards written into the laws.

The GCDD is funded under the provisions of P.L. 106-402. The federal law also provides funding to the Minnesota Disability Law Center,the state Protection and Advocacy System, and to the Institute on Community Integration, the state University Center for Excellence. The Minnesota network of programs works to increase the IPSII of people with developmental disabilities and families into community life.